The Israel-Gaza war is “taking away the focus” from the conflict in Ukraine, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has admitted.
He said this was “one of the goals” of Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
And he denied that fighting in Ukraine had reached a stalemate, despite a recent assessment to this effect by the country’s top military general.
Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the south has so far made little headway.
This has prompted fears of war fatigue among Kyiv’s Western allies, with suggestions of growing reluctance in some capitals to continue giving Ukraine advanced weapons and funds.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
This has prompted fears of war fatigue among Kyiv’s Western allies, with suggestions of growing reluctance in some capitals to continue giving Ukraine advanced weapons and funds.
Russia’s defence ministry was later quoted by the country’s state-run news agencies as saying that 13 out of 15 Ukrainian missiles fired on the plant in the city of Kerch, eastern Crimea, were shot down, but a Russian ship was damaged.
Speaking at Saturday’s briefing in Kyiv with visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Mr Zelensky said: “It’s clear that the war in the Middle East is taking away the focus” from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader recalled that last year, there had also been a lot of talk about a stalemate on the vast battlefield in Ukraine - but he pointed to Kyiv’s subsequent major military victories in the north-eastern Kharkiv region and Kherson in the south.
“All the [war] goals that were set must be achieved,” Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Ukraine must realise that “even talking about any prospects for the Kyiv regime’s victory on the battlefield is absurd”.
President Putin has repeatedly claimed that Ukraine’s counter-offensive had failed, while his Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said this week that Kyiv was losing the war despite supplies of new weapons from Nato allies.
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